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By John Solomon<\/em> Rudy Giuliani has an unmistakable New Year\u2019s message for special counsel\u00a0Robert Mueller<\/a><\/span>: It is time for the chief investigator in the Russia case to be investigated in 2019.<\/p>\n In wide-ranging interviews with Hill.TV\u2019s Buck Sexton and me on Wednesday and Thursday,\u00a0President Trump<\/a><\/span>\u2019s defense lawyer pointedly accused Mueller\u2019s office of destroying evidence by allowing text messages from now-fired FBI official Peter Strzok and his FBI lover, Lisa Page, to be erased in the Russia probe.<\/p>\n \u201cMueller should be investigated for destruction of evidence for allowing those text messages from Strzok to be erased, messages that would show the state of mind and tactics of his lead anti-Trump FBI agent at the start of his probe,\u201d Giuliani said.<\/p>\n The Justice Department inspector general (IG)\u00a0reported this month<\/a>\u00a0that it found large gaps in the preservation of official government text messages between Strzok and Page, the two top FBI agents who helped to start the Russia probe in 2016, who were having an affair at the time, and who expressed disdain for Trump.<\/p>\n The report said a technical glitch was to blame for the FBI\u2019s failure to save those text messages, but the IG was able to recover more than 19,000 from the early part of the Russia probe before Mueller was named special prosecutor.<\/p>\n However, the IG said it was unable to recover messages from the time Strzok and Page worked for Mueller\u2019s office in spring and summer 2017 because the memories of both FBI officials\u2019 government phones were wiped clean by technicians.<\/p>\n That erasure occurred after Strzok and Page\u00a0left Mueller\u2019s team<\/a>\u00a0over revelations they exchanged anti-Trump text messages, including one string in which they talked about\u00a0stopping Trump<\/a>\u00a0from becoming president.<\/p>\n \u201cThat should be investigated, damn it, that should be investigated fully. You want a special counsel, get one for that,\u201d Giuliani said.<\/p>\n When pressed about whether he thought the erasure was intentional and not just a mistake, Giuliani alluded to the infamous\u00a0erasure of a Watergate tape<\/a>\u00a0by President Nixon\u2019s loyal secretary a half-century earlier.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s actually worse than Rose Mary Woods,\u201d he explained. \u201cShe erased less than 19 minutes of conversation, but the FBI got rid of more than 19,000 messages,” and the messages from the time Strzok and Page worked for Mueller are lost forever.<\/p>\n Giuliani said the Russia probe investigators also should be investigated for\u00a0using the Christopher Steele dossier<\/a>, which he called a \u201cpiece of garbage,\u201d to justify a search warrant on a Trump adviser without telling the court it was paid for by 2016 presidential candidate\u00a0Hillary Clinton<\/a><\/span>\u2019s campaign and the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n \u201cDo I think that is improper? Yeah, that borders on \u2014 that sounds to me a lot more like a false statement than some of the ones they charged,\u201d he said, referring to Mueller\u2019s team.<\/p>\n The former New York City mayor and Republican presidential candidate, who\u00a0joined Trump\u2019s defense team<\/a>\u00a0in 2018, sharply criticized Mueller\u2019s team for allowing\u00a0what he said were false statements<\/a>\u00a0by former Trump attorney Michael Cohen at Cohen\u2019s sentencing a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n \u201cHe just lied the other day. He told the judge, \u2018I was fiercely loyal to Donald Trump.\u2019 No, he wasn\u2019t. He taped him surreptitiously while he was fiercely loyal. He hid it. And he disclosed it.\u201d<\/p>\n The Mueller prosecutors\u2019 failure to stand up during the sentencing and correct Cohen\u2019s statement \u201cis unethical in and of itself. Making a false statement to a court, even a lawyer, you have to correct it,\u201d Giuliani said.<\/p>\n Giuliani said he is disturbed that the one Cohen tape that has surfaced \u2014 in which Cohen and Trump discussed making payments to two women accusers during the 2016 campaign \u2014 inexplicably\u00a0cuts off midway through<\/a>\u00a0the conversation.<\/p>\n Giuliani said he believes the missing sections of the conversation include \u201cexculpatory\u201d statements that would prove the president was innocent.<\/p>\n Giuliani expressed hope that the Mueller investigation would end soon, now that Trump has\u00a0submitted written answers<\/a>\u00a0to prosecutors\u2019 questions. He remains confident there is no evidence the president colluded with Russia to hijack the 2016 presidential election.<\/p>\n Giuliani said that, if prosecutors requested additional written answers from Trump, his advice would be for the president not to provide more information to Mueller: \u201cThey have everything they need unless they just want to set a perjury trap.\u201d<\/p>\n He said Mueller\u2019s current\u00a0focus on whether Trump friends<\/a>\u00a0such as\u00a0Roger Stone<\/a><\/span>\u00a0were communicating with WikiLeaks outside the campaign about hacked Hillary Clinton emails shows just how far astray the probe had gone.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re now four degrees of separation from the original mandate of the investigation, which was collusion which did not occur,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n When asked whether Mueller should be the last special prosecutor ever appointed by the Justice Department, Giuliani hedged: \u201cI never like to say never, but I must say I have great pause after seeing the abuses in this investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n The FBI, he added, still needs to rehabilitate itself from the damage done by missteps in the Russia probe. Giuliani said he believed that \u201c99 percent of the FBI agents\u201d were doing a great job but that a small group of \u201cFBI politicians\u201d had improperly hijacked the Russia probe during fired Director\u00a0James Comey<\/a><\/span>\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n Giuliani said he is uncertain if President Trump\u2019s pick to head the FBI, Director\u00a0Christopher Wray<\/a>, could help right the wrongs from the Russia probe. \u201cI\u2019m uncertain because I haven\u2019t heard anything from him. … The first way you fix problems is by acknowledging them.\u201d<\/p>\n As for Mueller, Giuliani made clear he intends to fight back on every remaining move the special prosecutor makes. The Trump defense team already has drafted a robust document to counter any information Mueller sends to the Justice Department in his final report.<\/p>\n And there\u2019s nothing the defense team is leaving without rebuttal, apparently.<\/p>\n For example, Giuliani said it is ironic that, after\u00a0investigating Trump<\/a>\u00a0for possible obstruction because Trump once suggested the FBI consider going easy on former national security adviser Michael Flynn, Mueller himself asked a federal judge to go easy on Flynn by awarding no prison time.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe Mueller needs to investigate himself for obstruction on Flynn like he did my client,\u201d the former mayor said wryly.<\/p>\n He was joking on that one. But don’t expect any laughs on the disappearance of the Strzok text messages or Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuses. On those issues, “America\u2019s mayor<\/a>” is all business.<\/p>\n
\nOpinion Contributor<\/em><\/p>\n